‘You think that if I got an artist to come in here, Maggie, you could tell him what the man looked like?’ asked the super-sized homicide detective. Slumped shoulders, listless blue eyes, and a drawn, intense face betrayed his cheery inflection and contradicted the widely held belief that fat people were supposed to be jolly. Detective Bryan Nill looked like a man who had been on the job for a long time, even though he didn’t look that old – late forties, if Faith had to guess. He looked like a man who had seen a lot of unpleasant things as a detective – and then had the frustrating bureaucracies of a police department to deal with at the end of a shift, which probably caused him more grief than the dead bodies he found and the killers he hunted.
Maggie looked at Jarrod, not Faith, as they sat around a conference table in an interview room at the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office, where they’d been for over an hour. It was the three of them and two homicide detectives: Nill, who was obviously the lead, and Tatiana Maldonado, a Latino in her early thirties with an exotically pretty face. Soft brown eyes betrayed the tough persona she tried to work.
‘Do you think you can help the detectives draw a picture of the man, honey?’ Jarrod asked.
Maggie nodded shyly, clutching her Eeyore.
‘How well did you see the man? Because we don’t want the police to draw the wrong picture,’ Jarrod added.
‘Excuse me, Mr Saunders,’ broke in Nill, ‘I know you used to be a defense attorney, but that’s not your job here.’
‘Sorry, Detective,’ replied Jarrod tetchily. ‘But she’s my daughter and today my job is to make sure I protect her from being even more traumatized about this than she already is.’
Nill shook his head. ‘No one wants to upset your daughter, Mr Saunders.’ He looked over at Faith. ‘Or your wife. They’ve both been through a traumatizing event, it sounds like. But, see, we don’t even know what role this man played in what happened to Ms Santri – we just would like to find him and talk to him.’
‘I can draw him, Daddy,’ Maggie offered, picking up a notepad and a pen. She started to scribble something so intensely the pen tore into the paper.
Detective Nill chuckled. ‘Why don’t we leave the drawing to Officer Cuddy? He’s pretty good at what he does. And if you don’t remember something, like your daddy says, then that’s OK. You tell Officer Cuddy you don’t know.’
‘He was skinny. And he had girl hair.’ Her nose scrunched and her lip curled in distaste. ‘And he was mean.’
Detective Nill nodded. ‘Well, it looks like you’re ready for Officer Cuddy. You’ll like him. I’ll get him in here so you two can become friends.’ He looked over at Faith. ‘And your mom, too. She’s gonna help us with this drawing. It’s gonna be a joint effort so we can get the best picture possible. Who’s that on your dress now? Donner? Blitzen? Big Foot?’
‘No! Rudolph!’ Maggie squealed, delighted to have stumped an adult.
Nill smacked the side of his head. ‘I should’ve known by the red nose. ’Course that’s the exact color and shape of my pop’s noggin. Could be him.’
Maggie frowned.
‘I’m kidding, kiddo. A little bad humor. You must be getting excited for Christmas; you’re sure into the spirit with that dress.’
But Maggie was off and running to try out the other chairs at the table, which had toys and games on it that Faith had brought from home. ‘I want an American Girl doll,’ Maggie said.
‘And I want a Porsche,’ Nill shot back as he lumbered over to the door. ‘Hope Santa gives us both what we want. You are a ball of energy and the holidays ain’t even here yet. Don’t nobody give that kid sugar, Maldonado,’ he called out to his partner as Maggie spun herself around on a chair, using the table to push off on. He stopped at the door and looked over at Faith again. ‘You certainly got your hands full, Mrs Saunders. You’ll be OK with this, right? You said you got a pretty good look at the guy yourself?’
Faith nodded.
‘I’ll have your daughter work with Cuddy first, then you. That way whatever you saw, you saw, and we don’t taint what she saw. I’m sure you’ll be able to give a better description than your four-year-old, but then again, your daughter seems pretty smart. We’ll try and maybe find a mug shot off the sketch. Because Maggie’s so young, I don’t want to give her pictures of other men to look at before she works with the artist – that might influence her memory. Or at least, that’s what the argument’s gonna be, if and when we do find this guy. Nowadays ya gotta wear a lot of hats,’ he said, pointing to his head. ‘Ya gotta think like a lawyer. Those defense attorneys love it when we give them an opportunity for confusion later on. They jump all over that and mess up a perfectly good case – right, Mr Saunders?’ He smiled before cracking his gum and walking out into the noise and bustle of a police station at midday.
The door closed behind him and all went quiet again. Maggie spun at the table, Detective Maldonado worked on paperwork and Jarrod stared straight ahead at nothing and no one, his fists clenched in front of him. Faith put her head in her hands. It was as unnervingly quiet as the hour-long car ride to the police station had been this morning …